Tuesday, November 15, 2016

Hong Kong - What, Where & How

Hong Kong has always been in my 'to go or not to go travelling destination list'.

One of the reason why I am having a hard time deciding whether to visit that country is mainly because of the super high cost of living there.

However, thanks to Hong Kong Disneyland, it is almost impossible for me to not visit the place.

One of my dream is to step into all Disneyland around the world before I reached 80 years old.

So after putting into much consideration, I've decided to just fly to Hong Kong.

Currency Rate

RM52.90 for 100HKD as at September 2016.

How to get to Hong Kong

Duh! Obviously by flight.

LOL.

Okay, if you're a Malaysian, you can either fly from KLIA or from Kota Kinabalu airport. In my case, I took a flight from KK. The destination from KK to Hong Kong is slightly shorter period and of course the flight ticket is much cheaper.

How to get around

The transportation system in Hong Kong is efficient. You can either travel by bus, MTR or taxi.

I would suggest that you travel by MTR because almost every tourist attraction is accessible in walking distance from the MTR exit.

Make sure to wear a comfortable pair of shoes because you'll need to do a lot of walking.

Upon arrival at the Hong Kong Airport, you should get yourself an Octo Card.

An Octo Card is a public transport card for you to take the bus or MTR.

The normal Octo Card for adult would be 150HKD, whereby you'll have 100HKD credit to use and you can topup once your credit balance has finished. Do remember to return your Octo Card at the Airport to get your refund worth 50HKD before flying back home.

Alternatively, there is an Express Travel Pass which is also similar to an Octo Card. However the price for this would be 350HKD and you will have an unlimited MTR rides valid for 3 days. The bonus of this card is that you'll get two free rides from Airport to Hong Kong and from Hong Kong back to the Airport. You can save a minimum of 110HKD per person because the fare from Airport to Hong Kong is about 60 to 100HKD per person for one way or 110HKD to 180HKD for round trip.

Do take note that this Express Travel Pass could not be used for bus rides, it is only applicable for unlimited rides via MTR. If you think you will not fully utilize the unlimited rides, then I suggest you get the normal Octo Card.

As for me, I bought the Express Travel Pass. After the expiry of 3 days, you can manually topup the credit balance and treat it like an ordinary Octo Card.

This option is not really recommended because it is time consuming and rather inconvenient in my view.

Although the fare can be cheaper, but you might ended up wasting your time caught in the jam and also you need to study properly as to where to alight from the bus.

3) By MTR

I personally feel that this is the best method of travelling around Hong Kong.

It is fast and convenient. Although the price is slightly more expensive, but hey time is precious right?

The very first thing that will attract you once you've arrived Kowloon would be their buildings.

Hong Kong is famous for their high rise and slim fit buildings.
Most of their apartments are damn bloody small. I really wonder how people actually survive in that small building.

When I did a survey on accommodation, I was shocked to see that some hotels are as small as 6sqm in size. And the price range for such room cost a minimum of RM200 a night. If you are on a tight budget and wouldn't mind staying at a place that looks like a brothel from the outside of the building, you can even get a room for less than RM100 a night through airbnb. However, after reading the reviews from it, there's a cockroaches la, dirty bed sheets and noisy neighbourhood etc, I suggest you invest a little bit more for more comfortable hotels.

Where to stay

After checking Agoda, Airbnb, Expedia, booking.com, we came across to this place by the name of Salvation Army Booth Lodge which is located in Yau Ma Tei.

The price for a room per night is on an average of RM300.
It is clean, comfortable and spacious as well (way bigger than most of other cheap hotels).
Well RM300 is considered one of the cheapest hotel in Hong Kong *gulps*

I highly recommend you guys to stay here. There's an MRT station just across the road from Salvation Army, about less than 2 minutes walk. It is very convenient loh!

There's a free wifi connection and also free breakfast (but then don't put a high expectation on the breakfast served ok).

Enough space for me to play hide and seek.

The most important part of the room - big wide mirror!

Where to eat

For this topic, I'll skip because most of the time I had either KFC, Burger King and Kebab.

It is not that easy to find halal food in Hong Kong. So I guessed the above are few of the qualified halal food I presumed? Lol.

Sorry, this blog post is not helpful at all when it comes to where to eat in Hong Kong.

The place where we had our first meal in Hong Kong.

Mutton Briyani - 60HKD which is about RM31.74

Everything is so expensive there. Especially food.
I literally cried for every meal.

Places to visit

On the first day, we explored somewhere nearby our area. We went Mong Kok and Tsim Tsa Shui district.